


A Little Less Incantation

by snarry_splitpea



Series: A Little Unresolved [1]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Mentor/Protégé, Mentors, Teasing, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-13 08:27:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9114988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarry_splitpea/pseuds/snarry_splitpea
Summary: At 19 years old, Tina is the youngest apprentice Graves has ever mentored.  She's also the only one who can't seem to get her shit together. Sensing she needs encouragement but aware that he's never been great at praise, Graves physically guides Tina toward the right solution.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sportivetricks (tamlane)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamlane/gifts).



Director Graves was standing far too close to Tina’s desk. Had been for several minutes.  They both knew, but he was too proud to admit his error by backing away.  At least there was a narrow tabletop between them.

They’d started the day with him leaning against his desk at the front of the classroom.  The blackboard behind him glowed with ever-changing notes and equations. A fantastic backdrop for the only man Tina had ever met that seemed truly experienced enough to impart knowledge.  

Not a stuffy academic teaching theories out of textbooks.  A real auror!

Of course, among stuffy academics, Tina seemed a prodigy.  Determined to a fault, she passed all exams at Ilvermony with flying colors.  Had similar results in her first years of auror training. She’d won every award and scholarship she set out to earn throughout school and her burgeoning career.

However, the last year of training was turning out to be the worst year of her life. She spent most days shadowing junior staff.  Learning lessons like how to file, how to look up files, how to transmit files, how to interpret files...  Tina hated it as much as any auror-hopeful, but at least filing was something she could actually do.  
  
The weekly training sessions with Director Graves were what she couldn’t seem to get right. She couldn’t concentrate well enough to tap into his memories. She’d never gotten even the most basic disguises to stick. She even had trouble stopping him from apparating. Every restricted spell that -only- a senior auror could teach seemed to be beyond Tina.  Graves grew less patient with her, every week.  Which was horrifying because Mr. Graves was, ultimately, the only person that could sign off on her becoming an investigator. Anything below investigations was glorified grunt work.  Building repair.  Group casting.  Making arrests on the most uneventful warrants like using a wand without a permit.  She knew she was young to be aiming for the investigations team.  Yet, most people her age where nowhere near as brilliant.  Tina felt determined to bypass years of trivial labor.  She'd already more than earned her spot on the investigations team.  She just needed to prove it to Graves.

“Focus is necessary for you to complete the spell, Miss Goldstein,” Graves said as he laid his wand on the tiny table she used as a desk.  Tina tried not to think about how great it felt to be looking up at him from her chair.  Though she did press her thighs together and clench the fingers not holding her wand on the edge of her chair.

“I’m always focused,” Tina protested. Though it might not have helped the director’s opinion of her, she couldn’t help but stand up for herself.

“I’ve noticed,” the man said, plainly.  With an almost lazy wave of his hand, Percival Graves turned Tina’s uncomfortable, wooden chair toward the aisle. “How old are you, again?”

“Nineteen, sir.”

He sighed, frowning as he moved to stand in front of her, again. He clicked his tongue. Gave a slight shake of his head. “Young."

Tina watched him shrug out of his robes, her eyes immediately zeroing in the waistcoat and white shirt, underneath.  She was surprised to find that his shirt was nearly sheer.  It made sense for a garment he always kept under heavy jackets and cloaks... she just couldn't help but hope he'd remove his vest, too.  Tina absently licked her lips at the prospect of seeing her mentor's nipples.  His dark, chest hair.  He carefully arranged the bundle of black fabric across her desk to avoid wrinkling it.

"That’s quite young for you to be this far along in your training," Graves elaborated as he unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and rolled them up. "I’m rarely assigned apprentices, at all.  For the academy to recommend you to me while you're still a teenager is...”

Hopeful, Tina interjected. "Impressive?"

Graves met her eye and his eyebrows lifted as if she'd just told him she was a hippogriff.  Correcting her, Graves shook his head, pursed his lips, and clicked his tongue repeatedly.  "Baffling is the word."

She cringed.  Nearly every person working with her had pointed out what an honor it was to have one-on-one sessions with Percival Graves. His family was linked to MACUSA legends. His work history filled with special assignments and time on task forces that had saved thousands of lives.  He was the right hand of President Seraphina Picquery.  Tina was wasting this man's time. After the first four weeks of training, she’d faced every session with some degree of guilt. “I’ve tested out of some courses, sir.”

“I don’t doubt that you have the knowledge and appropriate skill set, Miss Goldstein,” he conceded.  Tina hadn’t thought it was possible for him to be any more of a distraction, but without the table and his jacket between them, her thoughts were undeniably lewd.  He smelled unlike any person she'd ever been around.  Had she ever been this close to a grown man, before? “What I worry about is a lack of real world experience."

“Well, all of the shadowing has been very office focused.  I would love to have the opportunity to...” Tina’s words were cut short as Graves leaned over her and slapped his hands onto her thighs.  They were practically nose to nose.  She could smell a hint of scotch on his breath.  Nobody ever seemed to criticize him for drinking prohibited substances and she definitely didn't want to question him.  In fact, it thrilled her to smell proof that he was a rule breaker.  Every thought she had about him was against some rule or another.  Merlin, how she ached for this man.

“Your focus is never where it should be." Graves's voice was suddenly lower than usual.  Huskier.  He'd modified it, purposefully, and Tina's mind scrambled to figure out why.  "What was it... Porpentina?”

Distracted by his voice, Tina couldn't immediately make sense of his question. “Por... My first name?”

His nose brushed against hers as he nodded and she could barely look at him without needing to cross her eyes. “Yes, Miss Goldstein. Your first name.”

“Yes," she found herself trying to lean back despite the stiffness of her chair.  There was nowhere to go with Graves commanding so much of her personal space. "My friends call me Tina.”

Graves chuckled. The noise sounded mocking and Tina tried not to let it bother her.  Especially since her mentor's hands were sliding up her thighs as her slacks bunched under his fingers. She could feel the cool, classroom air touch her ankles as the fabric slid up her calves. Tina wanted to ignore the heat of his palms, but her brain felt drugged by the sensation.  He pulled his face back a few inches.

Hadn't she wanted something like this for ages? Was she supposed to tell him to stop? Was this the only way he’d allow her to earn the job she’d already worked so hard for? Did her success depend upon giving him pleasure? Some part of her hated to be reduced to this by her hero.  Though, the loudest parts of Tina thrilled at the idea of getting to touch him for any reason.

“Porpentina,” Graves said, flatly. They were not friends. She wanted to frown at the idea that he’d make it so obvious while touching her so intimately.

Graves moved his head from directly in front of her face to next to her ear.  His fingers began to knead her thighs and he whispered against her earlobe.

“Porpentina, I want you to relax, now,” Graves instructed. “ Just close your eyes.  Breathe.”

If his touch was meant to relax her, why wasn’t he behind her?  A back rub, she imagined she could handle.  This was making her tense in all kinds of ways.  Most of them pleasurably.  She shivered as he pulled away from her, again and continued speaking. Hands still on her legs.

“Establish empathy by visualizing what I'm seeing," he instructed.  She assumed it was the same spiel he'd always given until he continued. "I’m looking at you, again.  Your eyes are closed.  Lips half parted. Face flushed.  I want you to picture what I’m seeing, right now.  You know your own face, Porpentina.”

She was picturing his face, not her own. Though this was different.  He'd never used her face as a guide. He'd definitely never described her. He barely looked at her, at all. It was one reason wires were so crossed in her mind when it came to the hands pressing into her thighs. She most definitely -did not- want to be coerced into anything when her job was at stake.  Yet, she also just wanted Graves' attention.  More of it if not most of it.  If the way he chose to focus on her involved abuse and manipulation, Tina wasn't sure she could walk away.

“See what I see.  You know how your hair is styled, today. You know which barrette you’re wearing.  See through my eyes.”

“I haven’t cast the spell, again,” she whispered her wand twitching in her fingers. The deep rumble of his voice had her entranced.  His heavy hands pressing into her legs the only thing she could feel.  Beyond those two points of heated contact, her mind felt as if it was floating in some void.

“Your incantation was accurate. You always establish an adequate connection. We're connected, even now. You just need to focus on what I’m thinking, not on how I look.”

Tina blanched, her mind returned to her body as a chill shuddered through her from head to toe.  Her body tensed at his words. So, he did know.  Did her legilimens spell create a way for him to see her thoughts instead of her seeing his?  She couldn’t feel his presence in her mind.  Knew what it felt like for him to be there.  Big, intimidating.  All-encompassing.

Annoyed, Tina realized she simply broadcasted her attraction.  Leaned toward him when they met in hallways.  Stared at his lips as he lectured. Watched his fingers as he cast spells.  Of course he knew she wanted him.

Graves only thought of her attraction as an occupational hurdle she needed to get past.  It hurt more than she wanted to admit.  It hurt to know that he had no regard for her as a woman.  She’d never imagined her fantasies of being swept off her feet by this man would come true... but it was nicer to have the fantasies, than not.

"Not again, Goldstein," Graves sounded like he was groaning.  Her awareness of his frustration made her body heavy.  Her mind felt fully grounded, again.  Noises in the hallway started to distract her along with the squeaking of the ceiling fan and the soft swishing of Graves's breathing.

Instead of speaking, again, the man pressed his hands further up her thighs.  Started kneading the taut muscles, there.  Without thinking, Tina parted her lips and thighs.  Inviting him.  Of course, she had no idea what he was thinking.  What he wanted.  But those thoughts couldn't bother her when she was being reduced to this.  Panting breaths and squirming hips.  She could feel his thumbs pressing into her inner thighs.  His hands had slipped higher but also deeper.  Somewhere distant, she knew she should stop him. Yet, she mostly just trusted him to be doing this for a good reason.  To help her.

She'd been warned that his methods were sometimes clandestine.  Is this what his former apprentices, most of them male, had meant?  Did he find the ones that fancied him and rub their legs until they were too hungover on his affection to ever want more?  Would this end like tales of too much alcohol?  Tina gagging at the sight of him, and not in a good way?

It was when Tina first moaned that she could finally feel the mental connection between them.  Faint, but there.  She threaded her mind along the cord that linked them and found that she was still too tense to visualize what he was seeing. They were linked like one void to another.  Both closed off.

"Are you using occlumency?" she asked.  Her tone practically a sigh and erotic despite her desire to stay professional.  He hadn't stopped rubbing.  Hadn't stopped drawing incrementally closer to her sex as he rubbed circles into her flesh.  Tina was no longer aware of her own breathing  or where her body met the back and bottom of the chair.  She was only this floating consciousness anchored to her body by the heat on and between her thighs.

"For some things, yes. You should still be able to access my recent memory.  What am I seeing, Porpentina?"

Graves seemed determined not to touch her -there- and his thumbs circled the softest part of her thighs.  Centimeters away from where she wished he'd go.  She didn't feel herself scoot closer to the edge of the chair. She didn't realize she was bucking up toward his questing fingers and silently begging him to bring her off.  She didn't feel the fingers of both her hands wrap around his wrists.  Pulling on him.  The man continued to focus on her face and flexed his muscles against her attempts to drag him into her.

"You're so red, Miss Goldstein.  You're biting your bottom lip.  Your hair is still perfectly in place but your eye makeup is starting to run.  There are black tear tracks on both of your cheeks.  A bit of kohl is on your collar, now."

Tina felt the cord connecting them snap behind her.  Flinging her mind toward him.  What was only darkness to begin with burst with light.  The light of the classroom they were in.  Reflecting off her face.

Merlin's beard, was this how she looked?  Breathing heavily and rubbing against the wooden chair he had her pressed into.  Her nipples were hard beneath her silk bra, slip, and blouse.  Graves' attention seemed to jump between them and her face as she started licking her lips and moaning. She could feel her arousal, again.  Loud and clear and rushing like a river streaming past her.  Or... wait...

This was Mr. Graves' arousal.  She ached between legs that weren't her own.  Her wrists hurt but she, no he, liked it.  Wanted to be hurt.  Wanted to hurt her.  His thoughts, though she noticed his attempts to occlude them sometimes slipped out.  Things like how he wanted to do more.  So much more to this young and desperate girl.  This girl that would do anything for him and allow him to do anything to her.

The same spell that kept his thoughts and deep past hidden finally buckled down on his arousal.  Tina felt bereft as it cleared from his mind like a whiff of smoke.  She was finally free of all physical sensation.  She could focus.

As per her assignment, Tina sought out the one thing he always did as a test.  Mr. Graves had written a note to himself and placed it in one of the desk drawers at the front of the room.  The desk, covered with many little cubbies, nooks, drawers, and cabinets would only open once, for her.  If she reached into the wrong opening, they'd have to test her, again.  Knowing Graves, however, he'd just drop her from the apprenticeship.  Especially after the risk he was currently taking.

Careful and with purpose, Tina slowly snipped the memory out of his mind.  She took it into herself and left him whole. The memory needed no substitute, but she wanted to show off.  She planted the suggestion that he'd put chalk in the drawer, instead.  Absent memories always healed better when replaced.

Tina came to her senses with Graves simply holding her legs.  She was wet enough that she'd soaked through her pants.  She could feel the slick on both thighs.  Could smell her own musk mingling in the air with his.

The man looked away as her eyes fluttered open. He stood up, pulled on his black cloak, and took up his wand. "Good progress.  Are you ready to complete the test, Miss Goldstein?"

He waved his wand over her, straightening her skewed clothing and drying her pants and underwear.  The intimate touch of his spell giving her an all new thrill.  She looked up at him but he wouldn't meet her eyes.  "The test, Miss Goldstein. Focus."

Fighting back the urge to groan with frustration, Tina pushed past him to approach the desk at the front of the room, yanked open the drawer, and as she turned to throw the piece of paper at his head she realized he was right behind her.

"I'll assume knocking your shoulder into me was an accident, Porpentina Goldstein," Graves scolded.  One of his eyebrows perked and his face appeared marginally less serious than usual.  Which, for him, likely meant he was pleased as punch. "Read the damn parchment."

* * *

 

_Porpentina Esther Goldstein_

_Congratulations on your mastery of memory modification. You and I will resume our lessons on canceling apparation spells, next week, though I will recommend you to a junior auror for occlumency lessons. I believe a big enough incentive for you to master that art is the memory I've left you with, today.  I'm sure you understand the consequences of failure to keep certain recollections private._

_-G_

 


End file.
